Fulani Terrorists Kill 8 at Du Village in Plateau
By Masara Kim
[Jos] Unlike the Fourth of July in the United States, Nigeria’s Independence Day closed with horrors on unarmed farming folk in the verdant Savannah of Central Plateau State on Sunday.
Families across the nation celebrated Nigeria’s 63rd Independence after church with fun food, dancing, drumming, and talent shows. So too, the Irigwe Tribal People in Central Plateau State until around 8:00 p.m. locally when hundreds were suddenly dressed in sorrow after an attack at Du village of Kwall District, Plateau, approximately 15 miles west of Jos in Nigeria.
Du residents had been informed by TruthNigeria of potential attacks in the area, but some said they were reassured by the presence of a 2,000-man army barrack just 5miles away and a large military checkpoint 2 miles away. In a nearby town 1 mile away, a unit of six soldiers mans a checkpoint to protect residents.
Attack Began at Dusk
Yet, as has happened hundreds of times in the bloody lands of Nigeria’s Middle Belt, for the last 20 years, a group of masked killers appeared suddenly at dusk to kill whomever they could before authorities could arrive, survivors told TruthNigeria.
“This is no doubt the continuation of destruction of lives and the ceaseless attempts to annihilate the Irigwe race by the men of the underworld “according to the spokesman for a local development association, Davidson Malison.
“Sunday of October 1,2023 was ‘Black Sunday’ as the entire nation has been subjected to mourning and tears shedding,” wrote Malison, the National Publicity Secretary, Irigwe Development Association.
According to witnesses, approximately ten men armed with assault rifles stormed the village at 8:15 pm local time and opened fire in a central area where many residents were gathered for celebration during the Independence Anniversary.
The riflemen divided into three groups, strategically positioning themselves at all possible exits, said David Agah, the leader of the community of 20 to 30 brick houses.
“Some stood at the eastern exit, while some stood at the western exit,” Agah said. “Some went to the center of the village where shops and petty businesses are concentrated with many people gathered as is common here every evening,” said Agah in Du as he showed TruthNigeria round the scenes.
But most unnerving to them was the report by some that a few of the terrorists were dressed in military camouflage and appeared to be soldiers, forcing Musa Agah, a member of the Nigerian House of Representatives, to call for a formal government probe.
According to Agah, the attackers, who spoke the Fulani dialect, included men in camouflage.
The Fulani, a majority Muslim ethnic group in west and central Africa with more than 10 million members in Nigeria, includes militant factions who have been blamed for six times more deaths than the insurgency called Boko Haram [Western learning forbidden].
Fulani militants killed more than 502 people in Plateau State in the first half of 2023, according to Intersociety, which tracks such crimes. Their attacks targeted Christians and killed at least 350 residents between May 16 and June in Mangu County alone, according to town leaders.
“I was hiding in the grasses merely ten feet away when I saw them because there was dull moonlight,” said Agah.
“They first attacked and were about to leave when they heard women screaming in my house and came back,” Agah reported.
“One of them had opened fire in the direction of my house and killed my daughter in-law,” Agah said. “I had asked other people in the house to follow my lead and run into the surrounding corn farms, but obviously they didn’t,” he said.
“From my hideout, I heard one of the attackers tell another they should leave, and the other one said the women screaming needed to be silenced as well. I instantly ran to the house which was close by and got them to escape before they finished reloading their guns,” he said.
Another witness, Joshua Williams, said the attackers went in the direction of the Maxwell Khobe Army barrack, which is nearby, before soldiers from a military checkpoint arrived. The checkpoint is 2 miles away.
“We were left alone and helpless all through the attack,” said Williams to TruthNigeria.
“By the time they arrived, eight of our people had been killed and five others injured,” said Williams, chairman of a local branch of Irigwe Development Association.
Local citizen guards were few and outgunned, Williams said.
“Only two or three people had locally made cartridge and hunting guns. One of them was hit with automatic gunfire several times in his legs,” he said.
Phone calls and text messages to the spokesman for the military task force in Plateau State, Captain James Oya, and the Army Spokesman in Abuja, Brigadier General Onyema Nwachukwu, went unanswered.
Fulani Ethnic Leaders Deny Responsibility
Fulani leaders told Truth Nigeria there was no proof their ethnicity was involved in the attack.
Ya’u Idris, leader of the Fulani residents in Bassa, told TruthNigeria the attack was carried out by “enemies of peace” who could not be confirmed to be Fulani.
“Just last Friday [September 29] we had a meeting with all community leaders, both Christians and Muslims, and agreed in front of heads of security agencies to maintain peace,” said Ya’u. “I was totally devastated to hear of this attack this morning, and I still am,” Ya’u said in a telephone interview.
“I personally summoned my people within minutes of that meeting at a local mosque and cautioned them against breaching peace, and they all assured me of their resolve to avoid wrongdoings. I find it hard to believe anything like this still happened,” said Ya’u, the Chairman of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association, a Fulani tribal organization in Bassa. Ya’u noted previous offenses against his members in the area, including violent attacks, were forgiven at the September 29 meeting in Maiyango town.
Rep Agah has called for a probe of military complicity with terrorists aiming to take over the area, he said.
“Just when we thought that the attacks had receded, innocent people were killed. These people don’t want to give up, and it surprises us that despite President Bola Tinubu’s assurances of security, our communities are increasingly unsafe. It therefore means that somebody is not doing his job or is deliberately failing because of the benefits accruing from such attacks,” Agah said.
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Masara Kim is an award-winning conflict reporter based in Jos and is the senior editor of Truth Nigeria.
